Hawaii Internship Adds to Future Teacher’s Résumé

Hawaii Internship Adds to Future Teacher’s Résumé

When it comes to innate talent as an actor and a singer, Kylie Peterson is a star performer on and off the BVU campus

Since her freshman year, she has been passionate about participating in the concert choir and its affiliated music ensembles, BVU theatre, the concert band, as well as sharing her musical talents in the community — all experiences that are honing her abilities to instill her love for music with her future students when she eventually becomes a teacher.

In January, the junior music education and vocal performance double major from Lincoln, Neb, completed the “supervised participation,” required of education majors, at the Alta-Aurelia school. Next spring, she will fulfill the student teaching requirement.

During the January 2011 interim, Kylie took advantage of another opportunity to get direct experience working with young people when she did a joint internship in Hawaii with the 4-H program and Hawaii Education for the ARTS (HEARTS), a Christian-based organization similar to 4-H Both opportunities were developed through family connections.

Her primary project with the 4-H program, based at the University of Hawaii, was creating a songbook “When compiling the songbook I selected music that was particular to the Hawaiian culture and I also had to keep in mind that whatever music I chose for the songbook had to be appropriate for youth aged from third grade through high school.”

Her first week with HEARTS focused on helping with the technical aspects of its production of the musical, Into the Woods Over the next two weeks her time was split between 4-H and HEARTS, which included assisting with directing and singing in choirs. “I want to teach high school primarily, so working with students on a musical gave me perspective on ideas on how to structure rehearsals and what type of work goes into a musical from multiple sides — the stage crew, sound crew, musical director and stage director.”

“I knew I was on the right career path through this internship because I really enjoyed everything I was doing,” says Kylie “It was a pleasure to work with the kids, but I also got to see what it’s like to be on the teacher/director side of things Working for 4-H, I found out I was capable of putting together a selection of songs that were accessible to a wide range of ages, a skill that will be valuable if I teach in a school with varied grades.”

“Most importantly, this experience showed me how much music means to kids and how big of a role music plays in their lives,” she says “I want to be part of that impact when I go out to teach.”

Kylie’s positive experience with the Hawaii 4-H program also led to an opportunity for another BVU student to intern with the 4-H program last January.